Disclaimer: Anything mentioned in this story that is also mentioned in the TV series 'Teen Titans' is not mine, so don't sue, because I have issues parting with the five dollars I have to my name

Notes: Just fixed up this fic! So hopefully it's better than it was!
Pimpage: Please check out the Prequel to this fic! The Rain Goes On

This fic is an AU where Apprentice and Aftershock never happened.

Rectitude
Prologue

When Robin moved, it was with a natural grace. He maneuvered with an agility and swiftness that could only be achieved from being born of two acrobats. He could melt into the shadows and slither on the floor. The targets never had a chance to scream. Never knew what hit them. Robin's cunning made him out to be the best kind of assassin.

Raven frowned and sat back in her chair, rewinding the surveillance tape she was inspecting.

It also made Robin the worst kind of enemy. His name had become something to mislead the unsuspecting in portraying such a weak and clumsy bird. He was more like a falcon, or a hawk, if anything. Severe and cold – emotionless as he took out his prey. His new and improved birdarang, deadly blades lining the edges, would act like sharp claws and slice through his victims' necks before they could even register the attack.

Raven sighed and played the video again. Everything was quiet on screen.

Starfire blamed herself for Robin's betrayal. She had been to the future, and though the Titans had fallen apart and Robin's alias had changed, he had still been on the side of good. Raven caught Star talking to herself sometimes, arguing that if she had just stayed in the future, Robin would still be… Robin.

Cyborg took the more realistic approach and blamed Slade all the way through. Slade had stolen his best friend and the person he looked at as a brother. Sometimes he scolded himself for not seeing the signs of Robin drifting away from them, or for passing them off as nothing when he finally did notice, but for the most part, he never felt self-pity. Raven was

proud of him for that.

Beast Boy spent his days and nights curled up in dog form, whimpering pitifully in the hallway between Robin's room and what used to be Terra's. He still hadn't gotten over the blonde's betrayal, and Robin's was like pouring salt into a gaping wound. Whenever he was approached by one of the other Titans, he would withdraw in fear. Starfire didn't understand, but Cyborg and Raven both knew it was because he was afraid of getting hurt again. In Beast Boy's mind - in everyone's mind even if they didn't want to admit it - if Robin, the leader, the strongest, the most righteous of them all, could fall into the dark side, then what was stopping the rest of them from following? Beast Boy's two closest friends had left him and betrayed him; he was thoroughly broken. Broken and forever mistrustful of the other Titans who remained – almost as if he were expecting them to run off to Slade at any given moment.

It had been Cyborg's idea. The tape. They would find where Slade's next target was and leave a video bug there to catch the deaths of anyone who came in Robin's way. It would then attach itself to Robin and record as much about Slade as possible once Robin returned to the lair. The plan had worked perfectly until had Slade found the bug. He'd moved the camera to a shelf where it could span the entire room and then proceeded to mock them by throwing Robin on the floor and showing them just how willing Robin had been to join his side.

Raven felt nauseas as she watched the scene, but a splash of gold at the top corner of the screen made her pause. Pressing the rewind button, she played it back until she found what she was looking for.

Peeking in on the action was a pair of narrowed blue eyes burning a vicious hole through Robin. They watched for a few moments, before abruptly turning and walking away, a mane of yellow hair following.

Why did Terra look so angry? Did she like Robin? Raven frowned. Way to kick a guy when he's down. She didn't think Beast Boy would be able to handle it if he found out that his two best friends, two people that she knew he had been in love with at least at some point, ended up together after breaking his heart. But that idea, Terra liking Robin, just didn't fit…. In fact, Raven got the strange suspicion that it was the exact opposite of the truth.

Thinking back to the last time they fought with Slade, Robin, and Terra, Raven tried to concentrate on the interaction between the latter two. She remembered the cocky smirk Robin had thrown at the blonde, and the growl Terra had bounced back with. It seemed as if they were almost trying to best each other, and Robin, of course, had been winning. When played back in Raven's mind, the two apprentices' relationships seemed almost like an older brother and younger sister trying to compete for their parent's love.

Raven froze.

For Slade's love.

She quickly powered up every monitor in the surveillance room and played a different video in each one. They'd taken to recording almost every fight they had with Slade, desperate to find a weakness. They'd figured out long ago that Slade was much too smart to organize an attack on. The masked man would know weeks before the execution date and only let on that he was aware of the plans the day of implementation. They needed a weakness to aid them in his seemingly impossible defeat.

Raven watched quietly as in every monitor Robin fought tirelessly, Terra watched on jealously, and Slade's eyes followed Robin's every move. Not once did Slade even glace at Terra – not even when she had thrown Starfire at least a block away from the force with which her rocks had hit the redhead.

And suddenly Raven knew. Robin was Slade's weakness. She narrowed her eyes as Terra did all but take off her clothes to get Slade's attention, the older man ceaseing to realize her existence. It gave Raven an idea.

She kept her eyes on Terra as she reached for her communicator. Her plan was against her character, low, and deceitful.

And it just might work.

TBC